There is no waiver wire in college football.
That’s what IU defensive line coach Mark Hagen said about losing players at the position. A school can’t sign players that aren’t affiliated with another team. It has to develop from the inside — something IU Coach Kevin Wilson has emphasized since becoming head coach in 2011.
So when IU Athletics announced the one-week suspension of senior defensive tackle Ralph Green III, and junior defensive lineman Robert McCray was declared unable to play due to injury, Hagen knew he would need some depth on the line last Thursday against Florida International.
That’s exactly what he got.
Eleven players played on the defensive line — six of them had never played a snap of collegiate football — and the IU still held FIU to 70 yards rushing.
“I think it was a good start,” Hagen said. “It wasn’t perfect, but there was a lot more positive than negative. We left a good chunk of plays out there that we could have had, but I thought our guys played hard for the most part.”
Replacing Green was the biggest question mark when the suspensions were announced The Hoosiers had already lost Nick Mangieri, Zack Shaw and Darius Latham to graduation and the NFL.
Green was the only starter left from the 2015 defensive line.
That’s when junior Patrick Dougherty got his first start as a Hoosier at defensive tackle, earning what Wilson called a “championship performance.” Dougherty didn’t find his name on the stat sheet, but Wilson and Hagen both sang his praises for fighting for a position in the trenches and forcing FIU’s first-half safety by drawing a holding call on an FIU guard.
Other than Dougherty, Hagen said no other player caught his eye during the FIU game, though the defensive line played well.
Junior defensive lineman Nate Hoff finished with three tackles. Sophomore Nile Sykes recorded his first career sack, freshman Omari Stringer recorded two tackles — including one for a loss — and sophomores Mike Barwick and Ja’merez Bowen recorded their first career tackles.
Sophomore Jacob Robinson, who plays defensive tackle and defensive end, had one tackle against FIU. The defensive lineman said while the team played well, he wasn’t happy with his performance.
“I wasn’t very satisfied,” Robinson said. “I thought I left a lot on the table. I take pride in playing hard, and I think I played hard. As a group collectively, we played extremely hard. I think that was great, but I wasn’t satisfied with how that first week went.”
Hagen and defensive coordinator Tom Allen feel the same way about the defense as a whole — that it got away without playing its best despite two interceptions returned for touchdowns and a forced safety.
Hagen said it was sobering to consider the defense wasn’t at its best, but to get it to its best he needs to continue to provide more reps for second, third and fourth string players in order to find the right rotation for the defensive line.
Allen said he supports Hagen’s methods and is encouraged by the effort he’s seen on the defensive line so far.
“Another thing that excited me was that we really didn’t play that well in my opinion,” Allen said about the entire defense. “We made a lot of mistakes, and we made big plays, critical plays. We have a lot of areas to improve on and we will.”
